I used to love shopping here - it's the best place to pick up quality art supplies in town, and I've had nothing but excellent service the few times I've used their frame shop.
I just hate to go through the regular checkout line anymore. Within the last year or so, the employees have started pushing their Michael's rewards cards on everybody so aggressively that it goes way past a hard sell and straight into harassment and belittlement.
I've worked multiple retail jobs. I get that big corporations really want their employees to snag every single customer and card membership they can. I get that hardly any retail employees ever receive training in giving out a hard sell that doesn't make them look like jerks. I get that a lot of times the employees have managers to deal with that are sharks.
But when I stand in line and hear the cashier bark, "Why?" when the customer ahead of me says she doesn't have a membership card, I'm immediately put on edge. The cashier has already made herself seem like an enemy, rather than a friendly customer service employee. I'm going to approach the register ready for a fight because the cashier has the hard sell tactics of an incredibly rude bulldog.
So when it's MY turn to make my purchase and the cashier asks about my membership, I'm already expecting another bark when I tell her I don't have one.
What I got instead was this woman shaking her head and saying, "I just don't understand all these people saying 'no'! I thought we'd gotten them all!"
Now this woman is coming across as downright sanctimonious - as though I'm some foolish little girl for not having a membership card yet.
She rings up my order and - as I'm grabbing out the cash to pay, and without ever actually asking me if I would like to sign up for a membership - she slaps down the sign up sheet and a pen and instructs me that I'm to write down my email.
No. Bitch. That isn't how you sell a membership. That's how you make customers hate you. I would know; I've been at this for a few years, myself. You should not order a customer to sign up for an entirely optional membership. You most certainly WILL NOT with me.
I had the distinct impression she thought I was some cute, stupid thing who would meekly do as I was told. Instead I put my cash down over the signup sheet and said, "No thank you. Not today."
"Don't tell me 'not today'!" The cashier whips the signup sheet away like I've just spat on it. "Tell me 'no,' sure, but don't say 'not today,' because that just means you'll get it next time."
Honestly, as rude as this woman was, I was almost tempted to come back the next day, make a purchase through a different cashier, and sign up with THEM while she watched. But then I'd still be signing up for membership with a store that clearly sees nothing punishable about employee behavior that atrocious, and I'm not about to reward whichever manager hired this embarrassment to customer service. read more